Beyond the Milestones: Are We Measuring AI Delivery or Business Value?
This week we had a comment on a LinkedIn post that posed a great follow-up question to our State of Project Management 2026: Project Management in and AI-Focused World Research Report.
The comment mentioned that oftentimes:
“AI programs expose a weakness that already existed in traditional delivery: teams can complete every milestone without proving that the capability improved the underlying decision or workflow. For AI initiatives, I would add adoption, model or output behavior, exception handling and business-value measures to the normal scope, schedule, and risk controls.”
All incredibly valuable and important additions!
Admittedly, there is always the risk in delivery that a team is focusing on checking the boxes rather than intentionally working toward improving decision-making and creating real business value. That risk exists in traditional project management and can certainly be exacerbated with the complex addition of AI programs. Through our research PM Solutions has found that one best practice of high-performing organizations is to continually invest in strategic and mature PMO models that align with strategic goals. Strategic, mature PMOs know that project governance must evolve right alongside the expected outcomes.
Our commenter went on to further ask, “How are organizations adapting their stage gates for initiatives where learning and experimentation are part of delivery?”
And that’s a great question. As a follow-up to our research report, we’d like to know your experience:
- How is your organization measuring success beyond scope, schedule, and budget when it comes to AI initiatives?
- Have you adjusted your stage gates to include adoption and experimentation?
- Are your AI initiatives being governed differently?
The reality is that an AI initiative can hit every milestone and still fail to improve a single business decision. Is that success?
Are we measuring delivery or are we measuring value?
At PM Solutions, our focus continues to be accelerating project management success and ensuring measurable business value.
Now let’s hear from you as we continue this conversation!